Match report: Wessex League Division One leaders New Milton Town FC beat Folland Sports FC 2-1

New Milton Town came from behind to continue their record-breaking run and maintain their five-point gap at the top of the table after beating Folland Sports 2-1 at home on Saturday.

Under manager Matt Maybury, New Milton Town – known as the Brickmakers due to the area’s historical links with producing clay bricks – have won a club record seven consecutive league games for the first time, writes Jamie Tarrant.

The victory – which appeared closer than it might with Folland Sports clearing an effort off their line and the post denying another late effort – also saw the league leaders extend their club record unbeaten league run to 20 matches.

After the match, assistant manager Andrew Hardiman said: “Today showed the belief and mentality of this squad. Despite being 1-0 down against a difficult opponent, everybody stayed calm, and in the end, our quality came through.

“Credit to Folland Sports because they’ve gotten a lot stronger since we last played them and had a difficult system to break down. We had to tweak a few bits at half-time, which the lads executed brilliantly.

“In the second half, I thought we dictated the tempo a lot better than we did in the first half. We stayed much calmer and created plenty of chances to extend the lead.”

Folland’s Marlon Mason stunned the home crowd with 10 minutes played. He raced onto a long ball over the top of the New Milton Town defence before lobbing the ball over the onrushing Luke Dennison and into the net.

It was one of the few chances for the away side as the Brickmakers then dominated possession and threatened mainly with Callum McHale, whose tricky runs constantly terrorised the Folland Sports right-back.

Cam Smith had the ball in the net in first-half stoppage time, but the referee had already blown for a free kick.

It had been a frustrating first 45 minutes for the home side. They had controlled the game but went into the break behind, struggling to carve out chances.

Brad Snelling was brought on in place of Ben Beard as New Milton reshuffled for the second half, and it took only 26 seconds of the restart for the Brickmakers to level.

A low drilled cross from the right-hand side found the feet of Dan Bartlett, whose effort took a slight deflection before rippling the back of the net.

It kept up Bartlett’s run of scoring in each game since joining last month.

Snelling saw a header cleared off the line just before the hour mark, but he made no mistake moments afterwards when he stooped low to nod the ball into the net after a free kick on the edge of the box.

Stone struck the post in stoppage time after a thrilling run down the right wing before referee Martin Underway blew for full-time.

New Milton Town takes on Fareham Town in the Wessex League Cup quarter-final tomorrow (Tuesday) away from home at 7.45pm before another away match on Saturday, this time against Whitchurch United at 3pm.

New Milton Town: L. Dennison, E. Pearce-Eavis, C. Smith, B. Maybury, B. Beard, T. Colmer, J. Broad, B. Stone, D. Bartlett, C. McHale, H. McGrath. Subs: O. Mayo, B. Snelling, N. McCarthy-Gardiner, H. Thornton, J. Foden.